He said Washington and Islamabad have started on a strategic dialogue which would take care of a lot of concerns the US has in the area.

As of March this year, we managed to start a strategic dialogue with the United States which should take care of a lot of concerns which the US has in the area, and some of our own concerns that we have, the Daily Times quoted Karamat as saying.

Of primary importance was the dialogue on energy issue. Pakistan has been steadfastly asking for a nuclear deal on the lines of the Indo-US accord, which Washington has refused to acknowledge on grounds that India and Pakistan were different countries with different needs and histories.

Washington has also voiced its concern over the Iran-Pakistan-India trans-national gas pipeline project over Tehrans controversial nuclear programme. It has said it can help Pakistan meet its energy requirements through other means.

We have also started an energy dialogue, a science and technology dialogue, an education dialogue, and most important, an economic and trade dialogue. I hope, these dialogues will continue, prosper and move on, Karamat added.

He said the expanding links between the US and Pakistan should be viewed as signals indicating that both countries considered their relationship as an enduring one - that was going to continue and was moving ahead on several tracks.

I think, it is for the first time that its being packaged together and we have a sense of what we are dealing with when we interact with each other, he further said. (ANI)